I was driving home today, in a massive rush as I had an appointment online which has been booked for weeks, I was late for it already..stopped at the junction near my house, very rural, at the intersection of a walking trail up a very steep hill, a single track road and my driveway. There was a van stopped in front of me, and I could hear shouting. Saw another car pulled over, but thought the van driver was maybe dealing with an accident or road rage...His van wasn't damaged though, I assumed a bump, or a broken down car or disagreement or traffic jam, which happens a lot as lorries often get stuck on the road and everything gets snarled up..however as he moved off, I could see a woman at the side of the road, carrying a toddler. Heard more shouting. As I moved off to go up my drive, which is also up a steep slope, I saw her running into the wooded area at the base of my drive, hiding and crying. Had my son in the back so I drove up my drive, got him in the house, ran down the hill - the car reversed up towards where she was hiding, the driver saw me running down the drive and screeched off. He was going after her, as he didn't turn around, he drove in the direction he was originally going in.
She had already ran off up into the woods, up the trail. I shouted after her about three times, asking if she needed help, told her he'd gone, told her I lived just up the drive, she just kept running and was carrying the child...didn't look back. The trail goes up about half a mile to another road which is fairly busy but it's really hard going, very steep, chalky, tree roots everywhere...Massive wooded area, she could have hidden anywhere.
I didn't want to scare her more, couldn't have caught up with her anyway and she wasn't stopping....I was late for my appointment and was panicking about that, and my son who is autistic and very anxious as he was scared at my reaction...phoned 101 but was on hold for ages and gave up...I did my appointment very frazzled. Reported online but whilst the whole incident completely went out of my head the whole appointment, I can't stop thinking about it now.
Wondering if I should do something else? I went up see if there was anyone around after my appointment but nothing unusual. Barely caught a glimpse of either of them, just the colour of the car and a very hazy description.
I'm going to stress about this all night, feel like I should have photographed the car, or filmed, or if I'd bloody well fixed my dashcam last week when it broke or had the thought to stop the car in the road to stop him driving off...I don't know. I should have done more shouldn't I? I feel awful. I'm in tears worrying about the toddler, and wondering why I'm so bloody stupid and why I completely forgot about the whole thing during my appointment until it was over, which was for autism and ADHD... possibly relevant to why I'm spiralling now...
Don't really know what else to do.